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Portugal issues bonds at record-low yields

Xinhua, February 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal issued 1.25 billion euros (1.42 billion U.S. dollars) in three-month and 11-month treasury bills at record low yields on Wednesday, according to the state debt agency IGCP.

The debt-laden country issued 250 million euros (285 million dollars) in three-month bills at a yield rate of 0.061 percent, down from 0.108 percent in January and 1 billion euros (1.14 billion dollars) in 11-month bills at a yield of 0.138 percent, down from 0.221 percent for the 12-month bills auctioned in January.

Filipe Silva, director of asset management at Banco Carregosa, said in a statement that the results were "very positive to help lower the average cost of Portuguese debt" and said that uncertainty in Greece had not influenced Portuguese debt.

Portugal signed a 78-billion-euro bailout program in May 2011 with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, and successfully exited that program in May last year.

Portugal's public deficit stood at almost 130 percent of its gross domestic product last year. Endi